Letter from the Vicar

Happy New Year!

Christmas is now behind us and the new year beckons, filled with promise, possibilities, no doubt its fair share of worries (especially if we listen too much to the doom and gloom merchants on the news) but also of unexpected joys, new people in our lives, new hope, new things to learn and do. With the new year comes the freshness and, I hope, optimism that we feel as we contemplate the Christ child among us and all that the presence of the new life among us entails.

We have some more winter ahead of us, but spring is not so far away – lots to look forward to as we journey through these early weeks of 2012.

With that in mind I wanted to keep you informed about some key priorities for this year, some issues that will occupy a good deal of our energy and time.

The 150th Anniversary of St John's

St John's Church has stood at the centre of Burgess Hill for nearly 150 years, occupying an important and prestigious position in the town. It has been said of St John's, that it is a perfect example of a truly local church, conceived and built by local people, using local firms, materials and craftsmanship. The use of bricks and tiles from Burgess Hill's own brick and tile works make it a continuing testament to the origins of the town itself; the history of this church and our town are intimately intertwined.

The church was constructed between 1861-1863 and consecrated by the then Bishop of Chichester, Dr Ashurst Turner Gilbert on 12th June 1863. The architect was Thomas Talbot Bury, a pupil and close friend of Augustus Pugin and the style adopted was known as 'decorated gothic'. Although it is now far less decorated than it was – frankly I often look around the church with a bit of a sad eye as I notice just how much beautiful St John's history has been covered up with some slapped on paint – how such a travesty could have happened goodness only knows. It is about time that St John's was restored to its former glory – a challenge we need to meet.
We are also aiming to host exhibitions and concerts, more public events and local celebrations, to truly live out our vocation as the town centre 'civic' church, but to do so we need to update some of the interior and levels of comfort. The sanctuary and dais carpets are looking pretty tired by now and neither do they match in design or colour. They have served us well in the past but the time has come to put in new carpet for our anniversary celebrations. In addition, our pews are very efficient at seating large numbers of people but are not the most comfortable for long periods. If we are to attract people to concerts we will also need to ensure that all the pews have cushions.

So we need to start thinking about fundraising on a much more organised basis, something that most churches need to take seriously and perhaps St John's has neglected a little of late as we were able to live off past savings. But with reserves running rather short we must prioritise fundraising – it needs to become part of our mindset.

The Organ
Another priority of course is the organ. We put the organ appeal on hold whilst we concentrated on the stewardship campaign, but now we need to be raising awareness, approaching grant bodies and starting our own fundraising efforts for the organ as well.

Graham Todd has very kindly offered to chair the team pulling together a whole range of events for our anniversary celebrations in June 2013, but in order to have sufficient time to prepare we must start work now; so I would ask you to consider whether you might be willing to give some time to the teams planning all the events that we would like to put on across the year and leading up to the festival week.

Other priorities
Of course we have other things to focus on as well. I think that our present pattern of services is working pretty well although we might look at introducing some additional services to broaden our offering. We have made a start with the Remembering Service and in the Spring we shall have a service for the renewing of marriage vows – an opportunity to celebrate the joy that marriage can bring.

In addition I would like build up the work of small groups at St John‘s: Bible study, prayer groups, courses on theology/ discipleship, the spiritual development of our new Guilds, perhaps a men's breakfast group, plus Confirmation and First Communion study groups are all great ways to build up our life together.

So a good deal to be getting on with, some exciting challenges ahead, one or two hills to climb, but after the very impressive results of the stewardship campaign nothing we cannot achieve if we resolve our hearts and minds to the purpose.

May 2012 truly be a happy new year for us all.

Fr Kevin

January 2012